SIGNS OF THE TIMES

GONE ARE THE DAYS OF CARS CHUGGING ALONG AT SPEEDS that easily let passengers read the historical signs that first graced North Carolina roadsides in 1936. Given the swift speed of traffic nowadays, these same distinctive markers are now typically located near stoplights and intersections so people can read them quickly, explains Ansley Herring Wegner, head administrator of the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program.

“I really like [the size of] our three-inch letters,” Ansley says. “I think they do a good job of capturing attention and maybe sparking your interest to learn a little more. Even if you just Google and get a Wikipedia article, you’re still learning more about it.”

For those curious to know more from the historical marker program itself, however, full, printable essays are also readily available on the state program’s website, which explain the significance of each marker in detail. Currently, each of the 100 counties in North Carolina has at least one such marker, and there’s a total of about 1,600 markers statewide.

“It’s truly like a published book,” Ansley says of the program’s website, which allows the public to search

Signs

OF THE

Times historical markers by county, title or text for more information about each sign. But as handy as that is, the actual program predates the internet by decades. North Carolina was one of the Informing and educating North nation’s first to create such a program in 1935, and it was Carolina travelers is no easy task for modeled after the very first – Virginia’s – which began in the state's Historical Marker Program 1927. Any North Carolina resident can apply for a BY CORINNE SAUNDERS prospective marker as well – as long as the subject meets certain criteria, such as carrying statewide significance, and if it’s a person, that at least 25 years have passed since his or her death. Unlike other nearby states, it doesn’t even cost members of the public anything to apply. But although the program has operated in conjunction with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) from its very start, much has changed since it was first established.

Cast in 2013, the “USRC Mercury” marker was honored when it was first unveiled near the Cedar Island/Swan Quarter ferry landing in Hyde County (photo courtesy of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History).

“It’s not just a committee of a few buddies sitting in a restaurant,” Ansley says, explaining how a few professors from universities in the state’s Piedmont region originally managed the program.

Today, 10 history professors who span the state both geographically – and in areas of expertise – are selected from various four-year colleges and universities to serve five-year terms, and at least two committee seats change hands each year.

Other important national changes since the program’s inception include the extension of full civil and voting rights to African Americans and Native Americans – which has rightfully expanded a historical focus that once centered primarily on European-descended men and battle outcomes.

“In the early days of the program, the markers focused on big battles [and] the really big, easy stories,” Ansley notes. “I think the stories we’re getting now are much broader – maybe [even including] the stories you don’t know. We’re certainly getting more African American markers. It’s history for all the people.”

When it comes to things of statewide significance, that can also include more recently declassified events – such as the 1961 nearnuclear explosion in Wayne County.

The marker for that incident, titled, “Nuclear Mishap,” was cast in 2011. Fifty years earlier, a B-52 carrying two nuclear missiles crashed near Goldsboro, resulting in the deaths of three of the eight crewmen. Many historians believe that only the nuclear missiles’ final safety locks kept them from detonating after all the other locks failed.

“That might not have been a marker not that long ago,” Ansley adds.

UNLIKE MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS, roadside markers are distinct in that they’re not celebratory – the subject matter may be considered good, bad or merely neutral. “[They’re] part of our shared past,” Ansley explains. “Historical markers are like museum labels on the landscape, saying: ‘This happened here; this person lived here.’”

Given that context, some markers can seem more controversial than others, with topics such as the late Eugenics Board in Raleigh and the 1898 Wilmington Coup causing a bit of a stir, according to Ansley.

The Eugenics Board marker was cast in 2008 and reads, in part: “State action led to the sterilization by choice or coercion of over 7,600 people, 1933-1973.” Equally as chilling, the Wilmington Coup marker was cast in 2017, and it describes a racially motivated mob of white supremacists who wreaked havoc on the city while staging the only successful coup d’état in our nation’s history.

“We’re not celebrating it,” Ansley adds firmly of these and other similarly problematic events in our state history. “[But] this happened, and that’s where I think our marker program does a good job [of telling] the good and the bad.”

On a more local note, Currituck County has nine historical markers, Hyde County has eight and Tyrrell County has one. Dare County is home to an impressive 25 markers, two of which are among the oldest in the program, including the “First English Colonies,” which was cast in 1935, and a marker dedicated to the Wright brothers that was created in 1936.

More recently, the Dasemunkepeuc marker was cast in 2012. Located near Mann’s Harbor, the marker indicates the site of a former Algonquian village that was home to Wingina, a regional tribal leader who was killed by colonists in 1586. The Freedmen’s Colony marker in Manteo, which describes the state’s first refugee community for the formerly enslaved during the Civil War was established a year later in 2013 – and both help shed light on some of the lesser-known chapters of Outer Banks history.

HISTORICAL RELEVANCE DOESN’T MAKE THE MARKERS IMMUNE to more humdrum daily concerns, however. Their roadside locations make them vulnerable to traffic accidents, and factors such as extreme weather,

contract mowers, snow plows and other equipment failures can cause a fair share of damage, too. Though far rarer, vandalism can also be an issue at times – but these aren’t just small inconveniences, especially considering the fact that markers are handmade in Ohio and they cost upwards of $2,000 each to produce. Keeping track of such a vast network of signs isn’t a simple task either. Even though marker committee members are drawn from all over the state, they still depend on public reports when markers become illegible after sand or storm damage, especially on the coast. In 2020, Ansley put out a social media call for volunteers willing to attach weatherproof reflective stickers to all the markers with the program’s phone number and a notice that The marker located at the Hyde County Courthouse in Swan Quarter sheds the markers were the property of the state. light on the African American led public school boycott of 1968-1969, which resulted in more inclusive decision-making on county-wide educational issues from that point forward (photo courtesy of the North Carolina Office of “In about two weeks, I had volunteers in all 100 counties,” she says, noting that most Archives and History). of the people who reported subsequent damage reports mentioned seeing the stickers. The marker committee also receives 30 to 40 new marker applications annually and generally approves about half of those during their biannual meetings – or, at least, they did until 2019. As a result of financial issues within the NCDOT, the historical marker budget was cut entirely in April of 2019, effectively suspending the program and putting 13 preapproved markers on hold indefinitely. Thankfully, the January 2022 budget included $100,000 for the program, so Ansley anticipates resolving their three-year Dare County maintenance buildup and getting new is home to an approvals back on track as soon as possible. One damaged marker that languished impressive in storage since 2019 was recently repaired 25 markers, and reinstalled in Halifax County. The Ella Baker marker, cast in 2011, denotes the two of which location of Baker’s childhood home prior are among to her organizing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at Raleigh’s Shaw the oldest in University in 1960 – which was only part of the program. her tireless, lifelong efforts to promote racial equality – and the program’s accompanying essay explains that she is recognized by many as “the mother of the civil rights movement.” “We’ve put it back up because we need to remember these things,” Ansley says. “People get markers and monuments confused a lot. Monuments are literally larger than life [that are generally positioned] in a place of power. These markers are fixed right in the ground, pointing to something…reminding you that they’re from here.”